Bulgaria Adopts Amended Film Industry Act
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SOFIA: Bulgaria’s Parliament adopted the amended Film Industry Act, proposed by the Council of Ministers in November 2017. The changes meet the country’s commitments to bring the existing film state aid schemes in line with the European Commission's Communication on State Aid for Films and Other Audiovisual Works (2013/C 332/01).

The first change in the amended Film Industry Act terminates the requirement for Bulgarian citizenship of the authors applying for state support. The second one fixes at 75% the lowest percentage of the allocated funds to be spent in Bulgaria. The third one submits the definition for “difficult film”, a film whose only version is in Bulgarian language and its budget is not higher than the average budget of the previous year.

“In doing so, Bulgaria’s commitment to make changes to the Film Industry Act relating to the European Commission’s monitoring of the Aid Scheme of 2013 was met, allowing us to further consider substantial changes to the Film Industry Act, which is of vital importance to all those working in the field of filmmaking”, Jana Karaivanova, Executive director of the Bulgarian National Film Center, said in an official statement.

As the previous monitoring by the European Commission of the aid scheme expired on 31 December 2017, a new one is to be conducted during the year. Before its official announcement, the Bulgarian National Film Center will perform obligations only under contracts signed before 31 December 2017.

Bulgaria’s Parliament adopted the amended Film Industry Act on 6 March 2018.

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